[Rant] Remastered Games in 2021 Were a Joke

For the past year, I've noticed certain remastered titles (SMT 3: Nocturne and GTA Trilogy) are doing the bare minimum to port on newer systems. I'll go over each one and discuss the main situation about this remaster trend.

SMT III: Nocturne Remastered (2021)

The approach to the actual design of the game is fine, as I didn't mind that they use the same rendering for cutscenes from PS2 era. Although framerate issues and occasional freezes (when I played it back in May) were somewhat troubling to my playthrough. The experience of what was Pokémon with demons is a fun game. I recommend things like SMT because it's a really decent JRPG series.

I'd say this is a much better remaster than what I'm about to review next, but I wouldn't recommend it's price at $50. It doesn't justify the laziness of Atlus not updating the sounds or even remaking them to match the revamp of textures and models. I'd have to recommend this if the pricing was under $10 in the future to play it.

Note: Mods on PC help remedy a lot of issues that Atlus never wanted to fix up (for some unknown reason). I'm surprised Atlus hasn't ported more games to promote the modding community for their games.

GTA Trilogy Definitive Edition (2021)

Just witnessing this dumpster fire on various streams I watched amazed me. While they do up the graphics, that's all Grove Street Games did to the game and it looks like they smoothed out every asset in blender. Sounds are the same, the awkwardness of the modeled characters make it ugly. The actual environments are really good for the game, but the removal of fog and other things in the old engine make the games feel too small and too sharp.

From Vinesauce (GTA Trilogy DE Experience):

Rockstar shouldn't have published this remaster. It is a laughable remaster compared to Nocturne's release earlier this year. Rockstar has way more funds than Atlus, so I'm very surprised they didn't do a remake instead and create another perspective of the trilogy. Hell, I'd be open to the idea and experience a new game but a familiar setting. It's a damn shame they went with the lazy route and did below the bare minimum.

What's even more upsetting than it should be is the removal of the old ports from digital stores. It doesn't make sense if they work fine they shouldn't be removed at all. The removal of the older ports and pushing the remaster version on consumers was shitty.

Closing Thoughts

I'm concerned for future gaming remastered ports. Yes, I am aware that the Spyro and Crash trilogies were remastered and done correctly and were only published a few years ago. But something I'm witnessing this year alone should tell me to be very skeptical for remastered games for the time being.

I know that remaking games would take longer and take more funds, but I rather games simply get ported into marketplaces like Steam, rather than an embarrassing attempt at "remastering" parts of the game and barely solving issues. Especially when those ports replace ones that were working and affordable for gamers out there.

What are your thoughts? Leave a comment if you want to discuss this further!

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Comments

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Connor64	1659687782 In fact, these games were not very successful. I was going to buy one of them as a gift. It's good that I decided to purchase a Steam Gift Card on this store. It allowed my cousin to buy the game he wanted. Report Comment
Kei_	1639809684 Totally agree. And that in many occasions they sell them at the price of a new game seems to me a rip off, if at least they were well done.... Also nowadays many new games are sold without being finished, we look like beta testers XD Report Comment
Aqua	1637666427 As a huge Metal Gear Solid fan, seeing as how remasters have been turning out I seriously hope at this point there won't ever be an MGS remaster.. Report Comment
♡Raven♡	1637472286 It’s an easy cash grab for them honestly. They can cut corners and rerelease something to rake in more money instead of investing in new content or properly remastering the games. I agree that it seems to be getting worse and certain companies like Rockstar seem to be more guilty than others. Report Comment It's a shame that Rockstar won't fork over some of that GTA Online profit for proper remasters. They probably knew that because of their brand they can pump anything and slap a Rockstar logo on it. by IcyTea ; 1637473417; Report
Banksy	1637472232 Agreed. The Mafia remastering was at least good to look at, but most remakes lose much of the charm of the originals. Report Comment